After Hip Surgery in US Hospital, Pelé Arrives Back in Brazil

01/22/2016 - 10h23

After spending some time in New York for a hip surgery, former football player Pelé, 75, returned to Brazil on Thursday (21). He disembarked in Sao Paulo and is believed to have headed to his residence in Guarujá, in Santos area.

Using a cane and sometimes a walker - this one to exercise - Pelé received a rigorous homework from his American doctors: detailed lists of physiotherapy exercises.

In addition, the former player will undergo physiotherapy sessions twice a week. On Thursday, there was already a battery of exercises scheduled in his agenda.

Via press release, the "King of Football" said to this newspaper that his health is in good condition: "I'm fine, I'm cool," he said.

Pele has undergone a hip surgery in early December 2015. The procedure was done at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, where he was hospitalized from December 3 to 7.

His press agents informed this newspaper that the surgery was made to correct the displacement of a hip prosthesis procedure done in November 2012. The piece is located at the junction of the femur and pelvis, and the displacement was causing pain since mid-2015, when he began to plan the surgery.

Orthopaedic surgeon Roberto Dantas Queiroz, who participated in the 2012 procedure and is currently part of the team that monitors Pele's health, said that during the surgery in New York he had to manage fibrosis in the area.

Fibrosis is the formation or thickening of tissue in a particular region of the body, as a sort of scar, which also causes discomfort. Pele's recent falls would help explain this problem, as well as a previous column surgery, in July 2015.

Enjoying vacations from December to early February, Pelé has also decided to do the surgery in the United States to be around his children and grandchildren, who live in New York, during the Christmas and New Year's celebrations.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI